I wonder if a sort of photographic memory component of the brain comes in to play with the early readers who just start whole-word reading. (mind you, this is coming from someone with no scientific evidence - i'm just thinking out loud here!) I learned to read at 3 or 4, but I don't remember it. But I do know I have a "sort of" photographic memory recall, because when i'm taking a test, I can picture where in a textbook the answer is when I don't know it right off the top of my head. Maybe a visual/spatial brain is wired one way compared to others. I better stop with my nonscientific babbling with all you engineers out there!
DS4 seems to be the whole-word type reader, versus phonics, although he played a lot with the leapfrog fridge magnets when he was 1. But he was definitely read to a lot (hours a day - it was one of the few calming things I could do for mr. fussy infant).
